Today EarthLink, one of the widest-reaching internet providers in the United States, has announced a deal to buy One Ring, a major player in the world of fixed wireless home Internet. With this deal, Earthlink is expanding its service into more areas in Arizona, California, Georgia, Maryland, and Texas.
One Ring focuses mostly on business internet, but its network could help EarthLink expand its residential service to different areas.
“We are excited to partner with One Ring and accelerate the rollout of EarthLink Business Services,” Earthlink CEO Glenn Goad said. “This combination represents a compelling growth opportunity in the high-speed business internet market, and EarthLink and One Ring will utilize the key advances in Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technology to better serve our customers.”
“EarthLink and One Ring’s strategy is to continue to expand the leading platform in the industry both organically and through future acquisitions across the U.S. to better serve the Company’s large and growing customer base,” said John Jenkins, Ppresident of EarthLink Business Services. “With our combined commitment to providing business and consumer customers with the best in communication services, we will continue to be one the largest, fastest-growing, and top-ranked service providers in the industry.”
This comes at a time that home internet competition has been growing with the rise of cord cutting 2.0, which is all about the new broadband options that come from fixed wireless internet. If cord cutting 1.0 was about getting rid of cable TV, 2.0 is all about getting rid of that physical internet connection and exploring new options.
Cord cutting 2.0 is getting off to a strong start in 2023. In the second quarter, T-Mobile and Verizon reported added 893,000 new 5G home internet customers combined. This is on top of the 523,000 home 5G home internet customers that T-Mobile added in the first quarter.
Now with EarthLink and other options growing, it is giving cord cutters even more options to break completely away from their cable TV company.
Cord cutting 2.0 may still be in the very early days, but a growing number of Americans have started to look for cheaper options for internet. Like the early days of cord cutting, this movement is picking up speed with no signs of slowing.